I dont get it

I don't think the dream should take part just yet. No matter how bad of an idiot Raiden has been or how many good guys have died this time around. They should just have a try after MK9 being canon and restart from there.

They are the classic and arguably most popular characters so Liu and the others will most likely be back soon enough. I'm interested to know what will happen from here instead of going back to something similar to the MK1-MK3 era. I agree though that the story could have been better.

I think MK Armageddon and MK2011 should be part of that bad dream.

Then they can start over and continue from Deception and maybe make it good again.

The problem with MK 2011's story is that it tried to be a reboot, but its story was connected to that of the past games. Not only that, but there were things altered in the story that couldn't have been altered due to Raiden's message, such as when Mileena was created or the fact that Jax was on Shang Tsung's Island being held prisoner. The story writers just don't know how to tell a good story. They seem to be incapable of going back to the stories of the past games to get things right.

If I was leading things with the story, and if I were to do a reboot, I would do a full-fledged reboot where characters are truly re-introduced, and we actually start fresh. Look at what Kevin Tancharoen did with MK: Rebirth and MK: Legacy. Even if you're not a fan of either one (or both), at least it can be seen that he was able to do something different in his take on the universe.

In fact, maybe it would have been nice to have had MK 2011 tell an ensemble story in which we play as the different characters in their backstories, leading up to the events of MK1. And even when you get to MK1's timeline, it doesn't have to involve Liu Kang being the winner. Even if he does win, the story doesn't have to be focused on him. Just do the story in an ensemble format where we get multiple characters, multiple perspectives, etc. That would have been refreshing for the series.

I agree with both above. Having someone being able to actually input his/her own vision or his own take on that reboot or past story could have helped.

I think it would have been a good idea for the current game rather than time warping but it is too late. It would have been a perfect reboot plot from Armageddon to recycle nostalgia and yet have that new fresh start but they probably still would have used similar story patterns either way.

If they did try to do a "It was all a dream" plot now...they would have to wait until the coming of the next Armageddon or whatever means to an end of all that is good. The thing about it I do not like is that since it is so focused on Raiden they might aim the idea at him being the dreamer but I would rather it be someone like Johnny Cage or even an evil guy like Shang Tsung.

Your point is a perfect example as to why fighting games should not have too deep of a storyline.

If it stuck to a tournament base and just had the arcade style story telling with cinematic endings it would be so much better than actually having a story mode. Stuff so in-depth should be made into a separate adventure game or whatever. That is what takes away from the rest of the games modes and its game-play...the story. You can hate to believe such but focusing on the story for a "Competitive Fighting Game" is a big risk. While that is one reason MK is so popular...it is also a big reason why the games always feel like there is something missing or broken. While I do agree that the story mode adds to replayability it also takes up disc space that could be used for actual competitive modes like tournament ladders,survival mode types,time attacks and whatever other modes could be perfect for tourneys.

All in all,the dream idea is mediocre and it could work well if done proper but I really think if they made a separate game for the story in full detail it would be so much better than trying to cram everything on one game disc.
They could even take advantage of online sales with making a story game...especially if they use chapters and each chapter could be a different characters view. Granted they could also make a story game based on disc and than have DLC expansions with more chapters too. I dunno...just an opinion.

I wouldn't mind having a separate action/adventure game that goes more in-depth with the different stories. A suggestion I made a while ago is that for the MK games, it can come in two discs, one of which can consist of the story mode. That way, the second disc can be entirely devoted to going more into the stories without having to take up the space of the first disc. Sure, it might take more time and money to produce, but if it's done well, I don't mind waiting. NRS doesn't have to put story above gameplay for the MK games. They can make both great but also keep in mind that gameplay is essentially more important since MK is a fighting game series.

Mortal Kombat 9's story was bad when you compare it to some best seller books. Mortal Kombat 9's story was good when you compare it to its competitors. The story pulled the old MK players back for nostalgia, even if it was worse than before. I counteract reboots, because they give you the sense of giving up with the earlier storyline (unless you just update it from the 1930s to 2010s), but what is done is done. Stick with this one at least.

No. I hate when things are revealed to be dreams. It would do nothing to advance the story, it would just set us back more.

I feel like if they did that, then we just waited two years for nothing.

The only thing to do now is continue the story, but I'm sure they can alter some stuff to fix a few of the screw-ups.

A dream would be too convienient. Besides I'm curious to see how this will play out. I want Fujin and Kai to have more prominent roles. My favorite character got killed but I want to see where this goes.

No offense, but I hate it when people say stupid shit like this. What is it with comparisons to things like novels? If you really look at MK2011's story itself, you would see that it's a bad story. Why? It's centered around an idiot plot that tries to emphasize shock value in various scenes.



In the attempt to please fans by going back to the nostalgia times of MK1-MK3, NRS ultimately shat on all of that by centering the story of this game around an idiot plot. Also, the story of this game suffers from both internal and external contradictions, which is a bit of a "fuck you" to those that bring up the plotholes and whatnot of the old timeline.

But yes, what's done is done. The new timeline is off to a terrible start, and it's going to take a FUCKLOAD of work to make the story good. Maybe if John Vogel wasn't cockblocked and could actually do the awesome shit that he did in the past, the story can actually get better.

I too believe that Vogel can do a hell of a better job on the story, so I'm going to keep faith for the next game.

Will try and have some faith too. Yes, Vogel needs to pick up his balls. Cuz quite frankly, other than for the return of the 2d and the bunch of old classic characters back, the MK4 and MKDA era was more promising and way better than that return to the past in terms of storyline and other new features.

The beginning of MKDA story surprised me and showed some risks and it held its ground refreshing the franchise. I wouldn't say they were going blindly but should come back to a more risky style of storytelling Imo.

Making it be a dream is just horrible writing. Say what you will about this last game having a bad story but a dream sequence is just a a waste of time.

And I still don't get all the hate over the story to start with. It's the same as the first three games with minor changes. I will admit there were a few moments of poor writing but I was actually really satisfied with the work they did. The story isn't meant to be Shakespeare and shouldn't be analyzed so deeply and judged so harshly when it was just trying to entertain the audience, which I believe it succeeded in doing.

Hey, at least Mortal Kombat had a story! (As bad as it was.) Many fighting game developers don't even bother trying. You must acknowledge that this is a fighting game, albeit Mortal Kombat used to have actually a decent story. My point was that the story mode of Mortal Kombat (2011) looks bad when you look at it as a story in general, but isn't half as bad when you compare it to many other fighting games. I got your point however, perhaps MK9 shouldn't be compared to any novels at all.

I don't agree. Let us move forward, the incessant back peddling has gotten old for quite some time, let's move on to Shinnok's rise finally. You don't correct major errors by continuing to add to the convoluted nature of the story.

I hate when people "compare it to its competitors" too as an excuse for having a bad story, but the reason I hate that is that it's FALSE to say fighting games only compete with other fighting games.

People don't buy games by genre, they don't walk into a Gamestop or a Walmart and go "Well I'm only gonna buy one sports game and one platformer and one fighting game all year", they buy them by "this is how much money I have and that looks like something I'd enjoy."

Mortal Kombat's competitors aren't just Street Fighter and Tekken, they're also Mass Effect and Halo and Call of Duty and Legend of Zelda and Batman: Arkham City. And some of the games on that list have pretty goddamn good scriptwriting. One of them's even made by the same publisher, so why can't NRS borrow some of them Batman writers instead of slumming it with guys who can't even remember that they once based an entire game on the fact that Quan Chi doesn't know how to steal souls.

Customers don't usually buy games by the genre (hardcore fighting game fans probably do) so of course the story should be able to compete with other genres as well. It's not the end of the world though, if you take into account that the fighting game player market area alone has millions of players to gather in your side. Then there are the 'genre-swappers'...

Well that's a good question: why don't they? Stubborness? Here I am just trying to justify my favorite game's flaws somehow (as silly as it feels to me at times noticing all the brain farts that NeRdS had with MK9).

I don't know why everyone talks about JUST John Vogel. He wasn't the only who wrote the story.
Brian Chard
Dominic Cianciolo
Alexander Barrentine
Jon Greenberg

Also worked on the story. John Vogel is the most known story writer. But I feel the blame should be distributed evenly. Personally the one I'm most concerned about is Brian Chard. He was a Senior Sound Designer... So how the hell did he get to work on the story?

blacksaibot, I agree with 100% on your statement, but it's not going to happen.

Funny thing is I thought the next MK with Deception would've been everyone teaming up to stop the One Being from coming back since it was hinted at in Ermac's ending. But instead we get a pyramid to prevent the end and Blaze on steroids, I'll be honest I only played Armageddon a little, I stopped playing MK after Deception.

No, bad dreams are bad ideas. The reason is that if it's a dream, then nothing actually happened. Therefore, it's pointless.

Why compare this story to the stories of other fighting game series? Of course Mortal Kombat is a fighting game series. See, this is all going back to the same kind of shit said to people like me in defense of MK 2011's story. Mind you, I don't feel that the story of the game should be a bad dream, but the story itself and the way it was told set the series in a bad new start.

The series is about 20 years old, and at this point, the quality of the work in the MK games should be of a high level. Thankfully, at least the gameplay is pretty good, and I really enjoy it. My point about MK's story is that if NRS plans to keep the series' story going and have some depth to their mythology, they better make it good. Don't worry about novels or the stories of other fighting games. Just make the stories in MK good if you're going to give some significance to them.



What the fuck is with all of this shit about Shakespeare? I've seen posts like this before when people tried defending the story. It doesn't have to be like a Shakespeare story. My point is that since MK places a fair bit of significance on its mythology, the stories of the series should be of a good quality, especially since the series is about 20 years old. MK: Deadly Alliance is a good example of an MK game with a good story.

I already gave a brief explanation as to why the story of the new game sucks, so I don't know why you still don't understand the hatred towards it. To be a broken record, the story of this game centers around an idiot plot, and it tries to reboot the story by going back to the timeline of the first three games. A plot device (Raiden's amulet) and a vague message ("He must win...") are the keys to this idiot plot that makes an idiot out of Raiden, assassinating his character.

Although the story tries to make itself out to be a reboot, it actually continues off of Armageddon's story, and things not in relation to Raiden's actions were changed, hence plotholes/contradictions. The story of this game tries to emphasize shock value by the deaths of most of the heroes. We don't really get deep insights into the different characters, both heroes and villains. This is because the story is centered around Raiden. Although the story of this game takes place in the timeline of the first three MKs, the story is not "the same with minor changes".

The story of this game shows that they don't know how to tell a good story anymore, and they don't seem to have a good understanding of their characters. For example, Quan Chi is a type of villain that manipulates things from behind the scenes, but in the story of this game, he's practically ubiquitous! If the gameplay can be analyzed and criticized in detail, why can't the same be done for the story since it's something that this series places an importance on?